Tian Chou 田疇

Tian Chou, courtesy name Zitai, was a man of Wuzhong County in Youbeiping Commandery. He loved reading and swordsmanship. In the 1st year of Chuping (190), when Dong Zhuo moved the emperor to Chang'an, Liu Yu, Governor of You Province, looked for an envoy who would not disgrace his mission, and people recommended the twenty-two-year-old Tian Chou. Liu Yu made him an Attendant Officer, but Tian Chou said that traveling under an official title would draw attention, so he would go as a private traveler, and he set out with twenty horsemen he had chosen himself. Records, Wei 11 §35–36

Tian Chou went up to the Western Pass, left the frontier, followed the north straight toward Shuofang, and reached Chang'an by byways, where he delivered his mission. The court appointed him Chief Commandant of Cavalry, but he firmly declined, saying he could not bear honors while the Son of Heaven was not yet secure, and he answered none of the summonses from the offices of the Three Excellencies. Having obtained a reply, he galloped back, but before he arrived Liu Yu had already been killed by Gongsun Zan. Records, Wei 11 §37

Tian Chou sacrificed at Liu Yu's tomb, opened and read out the memorial he had brought back, wept and left. When the enraged Gongsun Zan seized him and called him to account, Tian Chou answered that Lord Liu alone had not lost his loyalty, and that if Gongsun Zan killed a blameless lord and made an enemy of a minister who upheld righteousness, the men of Yan and Zhao would all throw themselves into the Eastern Sea rather than follow the general. Gongsun Zan admired the answer and did not kill him but held him in his camp; then, told that imprisoning a righteous man would lose him the people's hearts, he released him. Records, Wei 11 §38–39

Returning north, Tian Chou led his clan and several hundred followers and swore, 'If I do not avenge my lord, I cannot stand in this world,' then settled on a deep, rugged yet level spot within Mount Xuwu, where he tilled the fields himself to support his parents. Within a few years the people who gathered there reached more than 5,000 households, and the elders chose him as their leader. Tian Chou set down some twenty laws on killing and wounding, theft, and disputes and lawsuits, instituted rites for marriage and established schools. The people all found this convenient, and no one picked up things dropped on the road. Records, Wei 11 §40–42

The northern frontier submitted to his authority and good faith; the Wuhuan and the Xianbei sent envoys bearing tribute, and Tian Chou treated them kindly so that they did not raid. Yuan Shao repeatedly sent envoys to summon him and even tried to confer a general's seal on the spot, but he refused them all, and when, after Yuan Shao's death, his son Yuan Shang summoned him, he still did not go. Records, Wei 11 §42

Tian Chou had always resented the Wuhuan for having killed many of the commandery's officials and gentlemen in the past, and he meant to attack them but lacked the strength. In the 12th year of Jian'an (207), when Cao Cao came north to attack the Wuhuan, he first sent an envoy to summon Tian Chou and had Tian Yu convey his intentions, and Tian Chou hurriedly made ready to travel. When a follower asked why he did so now, having refused to bend though Lord Yuan summoned him five times, Tian Chou laughed and said it was not something the man would understand. Cao Cao made him a Clerk of the Bureau of Households under the Minister of Works, but the next day declared, 'Tian Zitai is not someone I should employ as a clerk,' recommended him as Flourishing Talent and appointed him magistrate of Tiao County; he did not take up the post but stayed with the army at Wuzhong. Records, Wei 11 §43–44

That summer heavy rains turned the low ground by the sea into mire, and with the enemy guarding the key passes the army could not advance, so Cao Cao asked Tian Chou's advice. Tian Chou said that the road from Pinggang, the old seat of Beiping Commandery, out through Lulong to Liucheng had been cut off for nearly two hundred years, but a narrow track still remained; if the army pretended to withdraw and then crossed the defiles of Baitan from the mouth of Lulong to come out onto undefended ground, Tadun could be captured without a fight. As Cao Cao turned his army back, he set up a sign beside the road saying he would wait for autumn and winter before advancing again, and the enemy scouts believed the main army had left. Records, Wei 11 §44–46Records, Wei 1 §98

Tian Chou led his own followers as guides, climbed Mount Xuwu, went out through Lulong, passed Pinggang and ascended Bailang Mound, and only when they were some two hundred li from Liucheng did the enemy realize it. Cao Cao fought the chanyu, won a great victory and pursued as far as Liucheng. When merit was assessed on the return, Tian Chou was enfeoffed as a village marquis with a fief of 500 households, but he firmly declined, saying that at first he had fled hardship and led his people into hiding, failing to fulfil his aims and his duty, and could not make profit of this; Cao Cao granted his wish. Records, Wei 11 §47

When Liaodong sent Yuan Shang's head, Cao Cao ordered that anyone who wept for him would be beheaded, but Tian Chou, saying he had once been summoned by Yuan Shang, went to mourn and sacrifice, and Cao Cao did not question him. Tian Chou took his household and more than 300 households of his clansmen to live in Ye, and all the carriages, horses, grain and silk Cao Cao gave him he distributed among his clan and old friends. Records, Wei 11 §48

On returning from the campaign in Jing Province, Cao Cao regretted having granted his earlier refusal and again enfeoffed him with the former title. Tian Chou swore on his life that he would never accept it, and the officials concerned impeached him, proposing that he be dismissed from office and punished. The heir Cao Pi said that he was like Ziwen declining a salary and Shen Xu fleeing reward, so his integrity should be generously respected, and Xun Yu and Zhong Yao also said his wish should be granted. Records, Wei 11 §48–50

Cao Cao still wanted to make him a marquis, and sent Xiahou Dun, who was on good terms with Tian Chou, to persuade him as a friend without revealing Cao Cao's own intention. Tian Chou guessed the intent and, weeping, said that he was only a man who had betrayed his duty and fled into hiding, so how could he sell the fortress of Lulong in exchange for rewards and salary? If it could not be helped, he would cut his own throat before them. Cao Cao sighed, knowing he could not be made to bend, and appointed him Gentleman Consultant. Tian Chou died at forty-six, and his son also died young. After taking the throne, Cao Pi, honoring his virtue and righteousness, granted his grandnephew Tian Xu the rank of Marquis Within the Passes to carry on his line. Records, Wei 11 §50–52

In the assessment of Records of Wei 11, after discussing Yuan Huan, Bing Yuan, Zhang Fan and others, Chen Shou wrote that Tian Chou held firm to his integrity and Wang Xiu was loyal and upright, and that both were fit to correct the customs of the age. Records, Wei 11 §111